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the soul as pure, semipure and impure is determined in this stage. It is evident that the soul hereafter tries to repeat the vision which it had enjoyed for a short while.
The Jainas repeatedly point out that there are five conditions of bondage namely Mithyatva i. e. wrong attitude, Avirati ( nonabstinence), Pramāda ( spiritual inertia ), Kaṣāya or Passion and threefold activities of the body, speech and mind i. e. yoga. The Kaṣāyas or Passions are four namely anger, pride, deceit and greed. All these five conditions of bondage have to be removed. Till now the soul has weakened mithyātva or wrong attitude. Now it has to practise right willing and right conduct. It has also to remove the spiritual inertia. In this process of purificaion the most important place is given to the removal of kaṣāya or passions. Even in this the threefold process of karaņa namely yathāpravṛtti etc. have to be practised. Now the suppression of kaṣāya may be affected by a graduated process or by a total action. It may be pointed out that in the course of the spiritual development, the threefold activities known as yoga continue till almost the final stage of the development.
It
The entire process of ascent of the soul in the direction of perfection is like the process of the climbing up a ladder when making a special study of the gunasthana. We shall see how the obstacles are removed gradually in the course of the ascent. is a fact that for reaching perfection, the soul has to go through numerous states. The lowest stage in this scheme of ascent is the first stage characterised by the action of wrong attitude i. e. mithyātva dṛṣṭi.1 In this stage which is really the normal stage of an ordinary human soul, the soul has only a little enlightenment in the midst of all enveloping darkness. This stage represents the lowest rung of the ladder. Even the souls which have cut the knots and have had spiritual vision for a short while may fall down to a stage which is described in this context as the first rung of the ladder. The souls which have not cut the knots
1. Gomatţasura, JIvikanda, 8-18
